Aliens: They mostly come at night
by alphalima1980
Summary: Mary Coles is a pest control technician in a far terraforming colony. Topher Wilson is a Colonial Marshal and ex-marine in charge of the colony's security. Would Their jobs give them the tools to survive the worst case scenario about to befall over the unsuspecting colonists? I don't own Aliens or any their characters, those are property of their creators.
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER 1**

Mary hit the device with her right hand. The green screen flickered but she continued seeing five white dots, twenty meters ahead. Despite her small constitution; she struggled as she crawled through the vent. "_Damn rats_" she cursed. The bulky device made her movements inside the air ducts difficult and what she wanted least was to go deeper and get stuck in a place where no one could reach her.

Mary Coles worked as pest control technician in the terraforming colony. She used an Arious motion tracker in search of rats inside the complex ventilation system. Rats had adapted well to space and as their counterparts from Earth, rats stowed away in colony ships and infested the new colonies, chewing vital systems and causing trouble. The dots on the screen were big; Mary pulled an electric baton from her bag, with the intention of stun and possibly kills the big pests.

-"Those rats are big, I hope this can stun them before one of those pests can bit me" she said. It was well known rats were prone to bite when they felt trapped.

The vents were dark; there was no point in installing lights in there. Mary illuminated the tunnel with her flashlight and saw she almost stumbled onto a shaft, she peered down and in the partial darkness she saw a fan spinning. Carefully, she passed the hole but when she was crossing one of her feet slipped and she almost fell into the fan.

-"Godaaaaam!" she exclaimed, hanging from the vent's edge, with the motion tracker hanging from her shoulder. "I hate this fucking job!"

Carefully, she managed to climb the edge of the shaft and pushed herself with her arms; Safe. I would be more careful next time.

The conduct turned to the right and after five meters it turned to the left. Mary heard the muffled noise of a running fan. "_There must be a colony nesting in the ventilation shaft_" She thought "_Damn rats, I hope I can fit through there_"

She checked the baton's battery, "_good, full charge_" and crawled chest down for an opening, when she came out in the ventilation junction, she let out a scream, thinking she'll be in a tiny space with dozens of furious rats.

-"Surprise, you moth–!" she stopped midsentence.

Instead of the usual debris, pieces of cloth and paper and stale food characteristic of rats' nests, the small cubicle was filled with candy boxes, a plush cushion, blankets and other objects. Mary noticed a plastic doll and some necklaces hanging from a screw. But what had made Mary turn off the electric baton was a little girl dressed with a greasy, dark green pants and brown long sleeve shirt, sat on the far side of the room.

-"Jesus Christ, Newt! I almost hit you with this thing." She exclaimed. "What the Hell are you doing here?"

-"This is my secret clubhouse, none of the other kids know about it, not even my brother" Newt responded.

-"This place is dangerous; you can fall though one of the shafts, end up in the sub-basement or threshed by a fan." Mary scolded her.

-"I'm sorry, but I just want to win" Newt said, kind of embarrassed "No one can fit here, except Casey and Me"

-"Casey?" Mary asked "Who's Casey?" Mary asked; there were a few more than a hundred and fifty colonists living in the complex and Mary didn't know someone called Casey.

-"My doll," Newt pointed to the blonde plastic doll she had seen earlier.

Rebecca "Newt" Jorden was the youngest child of wildcatter Ann and Russ Jorden, she was well known by every colonist in Hadley's Hope because she was the very first baby born there in 2173. Any other child older than six years had arrived along their parents in cryostasis on the colony ship, including Newt's brother Timmy.

Everyone addressed Rebecca by the nickname Newt because she was small, and slippery. One moment she was there, and the next she wasn't, for her parent's annoyance, especially when her mother wanted to scold her.

-"Okey, C'mon girl, you and Casey needs to get out here before a rat bits you" Mary said "That's my job, Kill the rats on the air ducts. They can bit and give you rabies, you know?"

-"They teach that on the school."

-"And why did you made your clubhouse here anyway? Why not in your room? Or inside the community center?" She continued.

-"This is my secret hiding place, it's how I win in '_Monster Maze_'" Newt said proudly.

-"Monster Maze? What the Hell is Monster Maze?" Mary asked.

-"It's a game, it's like _Hide and Seek_, one kid is the monster and chases the others inside the ventilation system" Newt explained, and before Mary could ask more, she continued "Aaron Lydecker said it's from a book, a terror book about a monster in a spaceship or something."

-"Aren't you too little for horror story books? It will give you nightmares, Newt" Mary said.

-"I'm six, and monsters didn't exist. At least, it's what mommy said: There are no monsters, not real ones at least."

-"Good to know it, C'mon Newt; you shouldn't be here anyway and your mom would be worried about you." She was impressed by the girl's maturity, he could be six years old but he behaved like an adult.

-"This way, Operations is over there" Newt said, pointing at a grate covered opening.

* * *

**June 19th, 2179. Hadley's Hope terraforming colony Operation's center, LV-426, Zeta2 Reticuli**

The wind chimed even through the Plexiglas windows of the primary operation center. Administrator Al Simpson barely can see the imposing outline of the atmospheric processor almost a mile away.

Hadley's Hope was one of the terraforming colonies funded co-jointly by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation and the Extrasolar Colonization Administration. Named after his founder, Curtis Hadley, the colony was at the time of it's funding on the outer rim, one of the farthest human outpost only surpassed by the mining outpost of Thedus, where the atmosphere processors were built, and another colony in Aurigae constellation –Origae-6 –239 light years from Earth.

Al Simpson pressed a button and the windows shutters descended. Winds on LV-426 were strong, and carried a lot of dust and debris, these dust would erode the Plexiglas is uncovered. Fortunately, the wind on the tidally locked moon blew from only one direction and the colony's storm wall protected it from the worst of the storm.

-"Signal's good?" he asked the communications tech.

-"A little fuzzy but it's coming through" the technician responded.

-"Good, let's see what those assholes on Earth have for us now" Brad Lydecker, the assistant manager said.

Every Saturday the colony received a transmission from Earth, including everyday mail, legal forms, news and orders from the company or the ECA. It was routine, because there was not much to do in a backwater colony in the less populated side of the outer rim.

For some strange reason, Wey-Yu offered funding to those colonists which were brave enough to settle in what was known as the Bermuda triangle of space. Ships had disappeared here since the first days of human colonization: the most recent was the tragic destruction of Sevastopol station in the neighboring system of Zeta1 Reticuli, during a decommissioning accident.

Curtis Hadley was a bold wildcatter and ghost stories and conspiracies didn't scare him, so he and a bunch of other colonist took their chances and settled here. For twenty years, they had tamed partially the unstable moon and now they had a breathable atmosphere. It will take another decade to clear the skies and grow crops outside.

The main communications antenna in the outskirts of the settlement aligned in the direction of Earth's, screens shown a series of ones and zeroes and them, the words INCOMMING TRANSMISSION appeared in yellow letters. Simpson read the messages labeled as top priority, there was one from a company representative; Simpson read it.

* * *

**Sent:** June 12th, 2179 **Received:** June 19th, 2179

**To:** Al Simpson, Administrator

**From:** Carter J. Burke, Special Projects Director. Weyland-Yutani

**Subject:** New orders, Investigate coordinates.

Simpson, how's the weather there? I have new orders from up here; they want you and your team of wildcatters to investigate a set of coordinates.

Lat: 23°45'33''N Lon: 26°52'44''W Right on the Illium Range. Last resupply ship detected a magnetic anomaly and seismic activity. It could be a new kimberlite pipe or another titanium deposit, the company wants to check it out. Don't worry about the rights, your team would get the usual shares.

Report any new discovery.

* * *

"_Damn company_" Al thought. The colony satellite network surrounding the moon doesn't worked in the dusty atmosphere so they have to rely on the state of the art sensors of re-supply ships in orbit, but these ships reported first to the company and then them to the colonists, snatching the discovery bonus from the righteous owner. "_Typical corporate assholes_" Al concluded.

Al Simpson checked the reference grid and found it was the zone claimed by couple Russ and Anne Jorden. They have been looking for mineral deposits on that part of the range. He will send them there. A short haired, brunette woman stepped inside the operations center, followed by a blonde girl with a doll clutched on his arms.

-"Mary, did you finish checking the ducts? Any severed line?" the Administrator said.

-"Yes, Simpson. No rats there, but I found something else" she said, as she stared at Newt.

Mary's job was not only disposing the rats in the ducts, she had to make sure if the little rodents hadn't chew any power line of fiberglass cable. The most important was the communication uplink and the remote control system of the Atmosphere processor. If there was an overload of the cooling systems and they weren't capable of shutting down the reactor from there, by the time a team reached the manual override, would be too late. Mary's job was important no matter how much she hated it. Al Simpson ignored Newt and ordered at a man sitting at a screen which shown the atmosphere processor's blueprints.

-"Marachuk, check the Atmosphere Processor's remote line, again."

-"All normal, Boss. Mary's right" Marachuk responded.

-"Lydecker, your kid and the others had been playing on the air ducts." Mary told the assistant administrator as he approached the technician.

-"What did Aaron do this time?" the man asked.

-"He and the other children have been playing a game called Monster Maze inside the ventilation ducts. I found Newt hiding there inside, he says it's a game based on some kind of horror novel."

Aaron Lydecker was one of the older kids in the complex, it was common he to lead another kids into trouble.

-"Oh yeah, that f#$ book. Aaron must have taken it from the shelf. A reporter wrote it in 2138, says it is based on real events about what happened to the _Sevastopol_ station" he explained.

-"_Sevastopol_ station?" Mary asked "Wasn't the station destroyed right on our neighborhood before the war, like… fifty years ago?

-"Yep. Reactor failure during decommission" Lydecker "Conspiracy theories about monsters and murderous androids."

-"I don't care; tell him it's fucking dangerous. I almost fell into a fan today, I'm lucky I wasn't shred to pieces" Mary scolded the assistant "Anyway, where's Ann Jorden?"

-"She and Russ are coming this way. I have a job for them" Al Simpson intervened.

* * *

Hello readers, as you noticed this is a short story about Hadley's Hope before Aliens, it will introduce the character Mary Coles (in the credits), the woman who was discovered alive in the hive by Cpl. Dietrich. This is her story and that of some events not shown in the film or in the novel River of Pain. I'll try to explain how she ended there, and how she met a little girl called Newt. Additional note: I haven't read River of Pain so in my continuity the novel didn't exist nor the comic Fire and Stone, that's because I sense the presence of marines in LV-426 didn't fit on it, as the marines from the USS Sulaco hadn't heard or mentioned them, Also, damage in the colony seems to be due to Improvised Explosive Devises and light fire arms, as in Alien: Isolation and not armor piercing ammunition like those of the M41A Pulse Rifle.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

**June 19th, 2179. Hadley's Hope terraforming colony Operation's center, LV-426, Zeta2 Reticuli**

-"Simpson; did you called for us?" Russ Jorden said, he was accompanied by his wife, Anne.

-"Yes, I have something for you; some grid reference one asshole on Gateway wants to investigate. It's up to you buddy." Al Simpson passed a folder with the reference grid and orders from the company. Russ Jorden read and then passed them to Anne, who also read them.

-"Illium Range?" Russ asked. "That area is unstable, a lot of seismic activity"

-"Just check the area, probably there's nothing but a pile of quartz or magnetite dust." Al Simpson told him.

-"I'll take me a day to get prepared, maybe two" Russ turned to his wife "What you say? Are you ready for a little adventure?"

-"Of course, I'll get the _Seeker_ ready." Anne responded, and then turned to Simpson "Anything else?"

-"Yes. Mary Coles found Newt hiding on the vents. She said they were playing a game… Again" Simpson said.

-"Geez, and where are they?" Anne rubbed her front and combed her hair with her right hand.

-"They can't stay here, Mary probably took her to Last Exit" Last Exit was the name of Hadley's Hope Bar and grill, the colony's restaurant at the far end of the complex.

-"I'll pick her up there" Anne said and ran to catch up with her husband, already on his way.

* * *

**June 20th, 2179. Reference Grid Lat: 23°45'33''N Lon: 26°52'44''W, Illium Range.**

-"It's useless, there is nothing here, we have searched for a day and a half and there is only volcanic ash everywhere." Russ Jorden cried to Anne through the howl of the wind, still audible through the thick windows of the six-wheeled W-Y surface _Seeker_ tractor's cab.

Although Acheron –the name the colonists have given to LV-426 –atmosphere was breathable thanks to decades of atmospheric processing, weather was another thing. Strong winds, silica dust storms, lightings and constant rain made the terrain difficult to transit, not to mention that it damaged all kinds of sensors.

-"Let's take a last look on that plateau ahead" Anne suggested, tapping the screen where the topographic map of the region displayed.

-"Ok, honey" Russ drove the vehicle over a pile of rock. "A quick look before the storm begins" Winds increased and rain drops start to appear on the windshield.

The heavy vehicle stopped on the flat plain of volcanic rock, Russ peered through the window north of their position and saw a tall conic mountain, a volcano. Consulting the maps and seismic activity during the last years he found the volcano hadn't made eruption in decades.

-"I'll take a closer look." Russ said, he took a thick parka for protection from dust and the cold rain and stepped outside the _Seeker_'s airlock.

On the cabin, Anne Jorden lit the external flood lights and saw her husband walking towards a strange rock formation.

-"What is it, Russ?" Anne called through radio.

-"There's something… covered with dust and sand" he responded. Among the rubble, Russ Jorden saw a metallic shining object. "Seems like a piece of metal"

-"You believe someone has been here? Maybe a probe" Anne said. Before establishing the colony, some of the survey probes had been lost in the strong winds and thick dust layer.

-"I don't think so, is larger than a probe…" Russ dug on the sand, uncovering the strange object. "Looks like a piece of a communication antenna"

-"Bring it inside, Russ. The storm is increasing in intensity, we need to return to Hadley's Hope" Anne replied. Before Russ protested, a lightning bolt hit a nearby rock.

-"Wow, you're right honey. We'll get back tomorrow" the man climbed the ladder, opened the hatch and entered the vehicle.

-"Take a look at this" Russ showed the piece of metal to his wife. Anne Jorden examined the piece of metal picked up on the plain; her husband had right, it looked like part of a communications antenna but she can't identify if it was from a probe or a ship and what was doing there, in the middle of a desolate mountain range.

-"You're right; it looks like a part of a ship. Did you think there's something out here? Maybe one of those lost ships; we're in the middle of the Bermuda triangle of space after all." Anne said.

-"Maybe, if the company wants it, then it would be valuable. We need to get this clear, if we find it, will the Company respect our discovery fee?

-"They better do" Russ concluded.

The wind rose with the arrival of the storm, and particles of dust and sand rose from the floor of the plateau, in the midst of the blizzard, Russ distinguished more scattered metal debris.

\- "Hey, look! There is more," he exclaimed. "Do you think a ship crashed near here?"

\- "I don't think so, this plain is big enough for a ship to land, it's possible that the silica storm or the volcanic ash has damaged it."

-"Whatever, we'll back tomorrow in the _Daihotai_ tractor" Russ said, and then he started the _Seeker_'s engine.

Two minutes later, the vehicle rattled back to the colony, in the middle of a torrential rain and a muddy surface and a few hours later, the vehicle stopped at the north gate of Hadley's Hope.

* * *

**June 21st, 2179. Somewhere inside Hadley's Hope ventilation system, Morning.**

They were near; Newt can hear them, a few meters behind her. "_I'm the last one_" the little girl though "_They'll never catch me_" and she squeezed through a narrow section of the vent. The button of his gardener pants she got stuck in a loose rivet and the girl felt the pull, she fought until the brace broke and Newt continued on her way, Newt felt a throbbing pain in her arm and when she checked, she saw she had a cut and had stained her shirt of blood, in addition to lubricant of a fan in the well above. It didn't matter, the thing was that they wouldn't catch her or everything would end. She kept moving forward, crawling hastily. The intersection was near, behind her, she heard the furious growls of her pursuers, unable to reach her.

The duct continued for ten meters until reached a grate near the south access corridor which leads to the second level stairs, where operations and the medical center were. Passing a junction heard crawling noises to her left; they had found an alternate route and continued their chase. Newt hoped once outside the vent would reach the next airlock into her hiding place where she would be safe.

-"_Just a few more seconds, please_" she prayed, and put her fingers between the grate to open it. She looked out into the hallway. It was partially dark; just a few lights lit the corridor a few meters beyond.

-"Coast is clear" she said and pulled herself legs first. When she was outside, a shadow cast on her, the girl screamed in surprise as she turned around.

-"There you are." A scowling Anne looked down at her daughter, annoyed at Newt's scruffy appearance, with dirty clothes stained with oil and blood on her arm. "Look at you? Newt, How many times have I told them not to play in the ventilation ducts? Not even a day after Coles caught you in there! He already told you that there are rats there and you could get hurt. Where is your brother?"

Timothy "Timmy" Jorden came out on that moment from the vent five meters away, followed by Aaron and another kid. "Oh no" he exclaimed.

-"Oh yes" Anne replied. "You two, grounded."

* * *

Hello Readers, this chapter is a bit of the daily life on the Terraforming colony just before the infestation, as the Jorden's were about to start their search in Illium Range by company orders. In the film it's inferred the derelict is two days travel from the colony, but I think it's closed and that they were looking at least for two days before finding it. Here, Anne and Russ (Newt's parents) reach the coordinates given by Burke; I assume those coordinates are the place where the _Nostromo_ and later the _Anesidora_ landed, a plateau, the only flat place where a ship can land.

Also, a little bonus, Newt playing _Monster Maze_ with the other kids and being caught by Anne, as in the movie, she scolded her children for doing so, this has to have happened just before they found the Derelict ship.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3**

**June 21st, 2179. Hadley's Hope terraforming colony, afternoon**

Mary Coles ran towards the closing door, covering her head and ears with her jacket's cap. The storm were sudden, cold strong winds blew from the south and although the colony was protected by a storm barrier. Wind, dust and rain lashed the colony at unpleasant levels.

Minutes ago, she was checking the air filters outside the operations module when the storm strike, the clear nocturne sky suddenly filled with clouds and Calpamos, the gas giant around LV-426 spun, darkened. Mary quickly grabbed her equipment and climbed down through a ladder and ran for the Last Chance Bar and grill. On her way she saw two more colonists putting a tarp over a battered Seeker and another maintenance vehicle.

-"Quickly! Get inside, this is a strong one" she cried, over the wind chime. The man nodded and he hurried to finish the work.

Once inside, she and the man brushed the dust over their shoulders. There were a few colonists there; most of them were already inside the complex.

-"Hey Jason, one Aspen please" Mary called Jason for a W-Y brand beer, the bartender and proprietary. "Did you know if there are teams outside? This storm is a class four."

-"Dunno, maybe just the Jorden's, I haven't seen their tractor at the garage." The bartender responded, tossing her a beer bottle, the woman took a big gulp, clearing her throat of dust.

-"Their Daihotai will withstand this kind of weather, they will be fine." The woman said. "What about the outlying homes?"

-"They're fine." He said.

Twenty years after its foundation, not all of Hadley's Hope colonists live on the main complex. When the air became breathable, some of the families made a land run and established their homes in the plateau, not far from the main town and the Atmosphere processor, most of them ranchers and farmers. Using domed greenhouses and cattle sheds, they breed Rynths and other animals exported from Earth and the colonies.

-"Only a fool would make his home outside the storm wall" Mary said.

-"Oh, c'mon Mary, they used the rocks and mountains as cover" a man at her back intervened "besides, there's not much space here inside the colony for a bunch of smelly rynths, isn't?"

Mary saw Marshal Topher Wilson, reclined in a chair, drinking a beer with one of the geologists. He was an ex-marine, member of the Colonial marshal bureau, the organization created for policing and colony security, basically the town's sheriff.

Late twenty first century's extrasolar colonies had become the new frontier, unlike the more populous worlds, terraforming colonies and mining outposts share more in common with the Wild West towns of the ninety century. Not worth a compliment of a marine battalion or even a warship in orbit. The Colonial Marshal bureau was charged instead by the Extrasolar colonial administration with keeping order in the far flung colonies, giving them certain autonomy but following the basic rules: no stealing, killing or destroying company properties.

For Topher Wilson that was good, after having fought in the Tientsin campaign fifteen years ago, the rude ex-marine exchanged the heavy Smartgun for a light revolver and the maneuverable 12-gauge shotgun. In addition, in a mining town like Hadley's Hope where the population was roughly seventy families who knew each other, the incidence of crime was almost cero percent, so the colonial marshal had little or nothing to do.

-"You said that, Wilson, but it's your job to be sure" Mary scolded him.

-"Oh right, Coles." He agreed, and took his radio "Ramirez, are you there? Ramirez?"

-"I'm… re boss… what… pen?" Ramirez responded on the radio, with a lot of interference.

-"Get your ass off the chair and check the status on the outlying farms." Wilson ordered.

-"Give me five minutes" Ramirez responded, and after a few minutes he added. "The… good, all structures… ured, cattle… ide and greenhou… ok"

-"See, everything in order" the marshal said, reclining at the table, taking another drink of beer, Easy job.

In the Marshal's opinion, Coles was overreacting, but that was the way she was, thinking of trouble where there wasn't any. Like her worries about the children playing on the air ventilation system inside the complex, as far as Wilson knew, it was worse if they'll be meddling on the maintenance tunnel, the water treatment plant, or worse, inside the Atmosphere processor.

Life in Hadley's Hope was kind of boring and routine, the only trouble were dust and wind, nothing more and it will be for another one or two decades until the atmosphere will be clean and climate stabilized. Marshal Topher Wilson finished his beer and then he headed for the office.

* * *

**June 21st, 2179. Somewhere in the Ilium Range, LV-426**

The Daihotai heavy tractor skidded in the mix of ash and rain. Russ Jorden held the steer firmly which prevented the tractor falling into a crack in the ground. They were in the plateau were they had found pieces of wreckage from an unknown man-made object the day before. Russ Jorden had concluded a ship had made landfall or crashed there some time ago and the company would be likely searching for it. If that was the case, the ships had emergency beacons which send a GPS signal to be found, but in the thick, dusty atmosphere like this, a search party needs to get a little closer to pick it up. Russ Jorden knew could be days before he found it, but just an hour ago, tractor's sensors detected a huge metallic mass somewhere north of their position, still out of visual range because of the rugged terrain. A lightning stroke the ground ten meters ahead, Russ pushed the tractor's brakes.

-"Look at this fat, juicy magnetic profile. It's roughly two hundred meters long for hundred and fifty wide" Russ told his wife, on the co-pilot seat. "Call Hadley's control, honey"

-"I hope radio works this far and on this storm" Anne hoped, she switched the tractor's radio on and called through the microphone "Hadley's control, Hadley's control, this is Alpha-Kilo-Two-Four-Niner on the Ilium range, come in?"

Static crackled and then a voice was heard: "Alpha-Kilo-Two-Four-Niner, this is Lidecker in Hadley's control, Whassup over there?" the assistant administrator called.

-"Tell him I need to talk to Simpson" Russ told Anne.

-"Is Simpson over there? We need to talk with him about the search order from the Company" Anne called "We picked up something in the mountains and are in route to check it up"

-"Yeah, there's something pretty big there and I want to know if that asshole on Gateway would honor my finding fee" Russ snatched the micro from Anne.

The radio broadcasted static, whether the guy hesitated to answer or had gone to look for Simpson, who shouldn't be far away. Either, two minutes later Assistant administrator Lidecker responded.

-"Simpson assures you as far as he's concerned, the claim is all yours Russ"

-"Music for my ears, It's mine, mine, mine" He said, excited.

-"Half mine, dear, don't forget that" She responded.

-"And half mine too, you two better don't forget that" Newt yelled behind them. "When are going back?"

Anne had brought Newt and Timmy with they after she had catch them playing inside the ventilation system that morning. Not the healthiest or safe place but at least she can watch them.

-"When we get rich, Newt" Russ told his little girl.

-"You always say that. I wanna go back. I wanna play Monster Maze."

-"You cheat too much" Timmy jumped from the back seat, putting his face close to her sister's

-"I Don't. I'm just the best." She clarified.

-"You do! You go in places we can't fit." He complained.

-"So? That's why I'm the best!" She said, in a triumphant tone, and stretching her arms up.

-"Knock it off! I catch either of you playing in the air ducts again" Anne scolded them, in an angry tone. "I'll tan your hides."

-"Mom. All the kids play it." Newt complained "Besides, you'll never catch us if weren't for Ms. Coles who tipped you off…" Before Anne could respond, Russ interrupted them.

-"Folks? Folks knock it off, we scored big this time!" He announced.

Through the tractor's windshield a huge silhouette stood before them, was shaped like a twisted horseshoe and was partially covered by a lava flow. The extension of the left, which ended in a kind of hammerhead, was detached by the action of magma, which broke it almost from the base.

In general, the hull's appearance –Russ wasn't sure it was a ship –looked almost biological, like the bones of a large animal. There was no doubt the structure or whatever it was, wasn't built by humans.

Russ was excited; discovering evidence of intelligent life in the universe was always a safe pass to a determined life, the pure salvage rights were worth millions. Proof of this was the Trenton brothers in Vega, whom discovered an entire city belonging to a civilization that mysteriously disappeared and whose members were very, very similar to humans.

The Trenton had made millions overnight just for the discovery. There were only ruins: Stone and dirt, but no tech, if this was a Ship and has functioning technology, the finding fee will multiply hundred fold.

-"Should we call in now?" Anne said.

-"Wait, we need to claim this place first, grab something, you know the drill" Russ clarified. In order to make any claim, they had to take something from the place or it'll be invalid.

-"Mommy, want to go now, I… Casey is scared, this place… she doesn't like it" Newt begged from her seat.

-"Tell Casey we're going in a minute, Mom and Dad just need to make their claim." Anne said.

-"What if there's monsters inside there?" Newt insisted.

-"What I'd tell you? There are no monsters, Newt. Not real ones" Anne said with a smile, the same she did when the girl was afraid of the dark back on the colony.

A few later, Anne and Russ Jorden were suited with their environmental suits, harsh climate clothing designed for low temperatures and rough use. Anne tossed one metallic sphere to her husband

-"There! Don't forget this, we need to map the place" Russ catched the Parameter Uplink Spectagraph or PUP for short, a mapping device standard for planetary survey.

-"You kids stay inside. I mean it! We'll be right back" Anne told her kids "And don't touch anything!"

They trudge toward the alien derelict.

* * *

Tim was curled up in the driver's seat, sleeping. Newt shook him awake.

-"Timmy...they've been gone a long time" She said.

-"It's been only two hours. It'll be okay, Newt. Dad knows what he's doing" Tim consulted the wrist watch and groaned.

All of the sudden, the tractor's door opened and Anne Jorden rushed inside, panicking and terrified. She took the radio and called, almost hysterical.

-"Mayday! Mayday! This is Alpha-Kilo-Two-Four-Niner calling Hadley Control. Repeat. This is..."

Newt peered outside over her mother's shoulder and saw her father lying on the ground, unconscious or worse ... "Maybe he fell, or was bitten by an animal" Newt, knowing that out there, on that desolate moon there were no wild animals. The answer to his question was more horrible than he thought, on his father's face there was something, a thing similar to a pink-yellow spider that wrapped his head with long bony legs and a segmented tail clenched his neck. Newt let out a high-pitched scream that vanished in the howling wind of LV-426.

* * *

Hello readers, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed this chapter of Aliens: They mostly come at night. This time, I write a little about the life inside Hadley's Hope as we knew Hadley's Hope had a colonial marshal and some of the colonists had their home outside the perimeter and raised cattle, this has a motive I assure you. Also I had shown an extended version of the events in the deleted screen of Aliens were Newt and her parents found the derelict. Based on the script I changed the dialog a little to get in line with the other events from Prometheus and Alien Isolation game, also with my earlier stories Prometheus: New Discoveries and Alien Isolation: Monster Maze. Don't forget to review and if any of you wants to beta read the story, just ask me on PM.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4**

**June 21st, 2179. Hadley's Hope terraforming colony**

The storm has eased during the afternoon and now it was just a soft wind, but the thick clouds still darkened the deep blue sky. Brad Lidecker typed daily reports in the terminals, just routine when the radio crackled and a voice called desperately.

-"Mayday! Mayday! This is Alpha-Kilo-Two-Four-Niner calling Hadley Control. Repeat. This is Alpha-Kilo-Two-Four Niner we need immediate assistance –"

-"This is Lidecker, repeat Alpha-Kilo-Two-Four Niner, what's the emergency?" he called back

-"This is Anne Jorden calling from the Ilium Range, my husband has an emergency and we need medical assistance. Latitude: 23°45'52''N Longitude: 26°52'48''W" Anne's voice sounded desperate, maybe they were in trouble, some kind of medical emergency.

-"I'll notify the colonial marshal, a rescue team will arrive there ASAP Anne" Lidecker responded, then called the Marshal Bureau

Topher Wilson and his deputy were cleaning their service weapons, plus the standard .357 revolver and the 37-12 gauge pump action shotgun. Wilson finished with both his weapons and took them to the weapons locker, when he opened it, he admired the most powerful weapon on his arsenal, an Armat M41A pulse rifle, with armor-piercing case-less ammunition and a grenade launcher under the barrel was the standard weapon of the colonial marines since '71, after the Tientsin campaign. And it is not that he used that weapon to impose order in the quiet colony, he kept it by nostalgia for his days as a marine, along with a small amount of ammunition and used to go out to the field and shoot it from time to time.

-"Wilson, do you copy? Wilson? This is Lidecker from operations, we have a situation, over" Lidecker called.

-"Wilson here, what happen, Lidecker?" The colonial marshal took the radio, leaving the pulse rifle over the desk.

-"The Jorden's found something in the Ilium Range and Russ is hurt, something had attacked" Lidecker informed him "They need immediate assistance. Grab a _Seeker_ and get them here"

-"Something? What do you mean with something?" Wilson asked. Clearly something meant some kind of creature or animal.

The discovery of alien life forms was not something new and very often, the planets contained one or several dangerous forms, from bacteria to wild animals, during their days in the colonial navy Topher Wilson participated in some bug hunts, but Acheron –the local name for LV-426 –was uninhabited until they established the colony.

-"Just get your ass on the _Seeker_ for fuck's sake! Their children are there and I don't want them hurt" Lidecker was impatient.

-"I'll be right away." He said, and then he ordered the deputy "Ramirez, take the emergency kit and come on, now!"

-"We're on our way. Just tell Anne hang on there" Wilson told Lidecker, and then he hurried outside. Ramirez took the trauma kit from the cabinet and ran after the Marshal, halfway the colony's garage.

A few hours later, the _Seeker_ vehicle crawled amongst the rocks in the Ilium Range, its floodlights bathing the eerie landscape, barely visible by thick fog. Somewhere ahead, the white LED lights from the Jorden's tractor illuminated a massive object.

-"_¿Qué diablos es eso?_" Ramirez exclaimed. Wilson saw it too, a horseshoe dark grey object partially buried in lava, one of the arms was broken and had crashed on the rock bed, partially covered by a basalt flow. When they approached the tractor, Anne Jorden jumped off the aft hatch, beckoning arms outstretched.

-"Over here!" She cried, pointing the back of the tractor "Russ is here!"

-"What happened?" Topher Wilson asked, as he signaled paramedic Sandra Archer and Ramirez with the right hand.

-"A thing… a creature… attacked Russ" Anne told them.

As they arrived at the tractor and climbed the hatch, Wilson saw the inert silhouette of Russ Jorden lying on his back in the tractor's floor. A weird creature wrapped around his face, it was like the impossible cross between a big scorpion and a long fingered hand. He backed away in disgust; the creature had no visible eyes and was firmly clutching the man's head. Wilson had never heard or seen anything like it. He touched it with the tip of the shotgun and upon contact with the metal; the creature tightened its tail, curled around Russ's neck.

-"Careful, Marshal, It did that every time I touch it." Anne warned him.

-"How are your Kids?" Topher asked her.

-"They're fine, just a little frightened" Wilson saw Timmy and Newt huddled in the back seat of the tractor. Newt held back tears while Timmy tried not to look at the creature.

-"We had to take your husband to the infirmary. Ramirez, take the search engine back, me and Sandra will go with the Jorden's in his tractor" he ordered his men and said back to Anne "Meanwhile, tell me everything"

\- o –

**June 21st, 2179. Derelict spacecraft at Ilium Range, LV-426; few hours earlier**

-"Looks like we can enter from there," Russ said to his wife, pointing to three strange apertures in the central part of the alien structure.

-"if they are entrances, as far as we know they could be the ship's exhausts" Anne suggested.

They climbed the rocks towards the almost vaginal tunnels; the curved corridor's floor was covered in ash and sand. It was completely dark and their flashlights only allowed them to see no more than ten meters ahead.

-"Ok honey, release the PUP" Russ said as he pulled off a tablet-like device from his overalls.

-"There it goes" Anne said, as she released the tiny mapping drone, feed from the drone's sensors were sent to Russ' device, and a 3D map of the derelict was forming on the screen.

-"There's a chamber ahead, a large object on the center. It must be the bridge" Russ informed his wife, they walked there.

-"If it's a ship; we don't know what it is" Anne responded.

The chamber was a circular, domed space with a low platform rising on the center. Above, a small circular aperture let the little outside light seep inside, illuminating the space with a ghostly blue light, but the most notorious thing was a huge dead alien life-form sitting in what appeared to be a large chair and a telescope, pointing upside. Half of the camber was flooded by the same lava flow which covered the ship's exterior, obviously poured inside through the cracks in the hull.

-"What the Hell is that?!" Russ exclaimed, he pointed the flashlight towards the creature's head.

-"The pilot… I guess" Anne responded "How old is this place?"

-"I dunno, a thousand years, maybe more" he said, he observed the bony appearance of the creature and a strange wound on its chest. Russ put his hand inside the hole, touching the twisted bones

-"Russ, there's something here." Anne's voice distracted him "Lava poured through this hole. I can't see where it goes, sent the drone there"

The tiny aircraft descended through the lava covered opening, they saw it disappear in the darkness below. Russ consulted the portable device and saw the vertical shaft ended in another, larger chamber below the derelict's "bridge"

-"Looks like some kind of cargo hold" He guessed "Let's see if we can get there from another entrance… There, we can enter through here. Let's go." Russ pointed to a crack on the broken arm, just right where they had left the tractor.

-"I'm behind you" Anne responded.

They walked back outside and descended towards the left. Below the hill the Tractor remained parked, illuminated slightly by the headlights. Anne looked the sky, Zeta2 Reticuli was high but Calpamos soon it would eclipse her, and it would be really dark; she calculated they had an hour or two before night.

-"How will the children be?" Anne asked "I don't see them from here"

"They'll probably be sleeping," Russ replied, raised an arm, waving at the vehicle. He saw no movement inside but had told Timmy to call if something happened. "Relax, they're OK, let's take a last look and get back to the colony"

The dented crack on the ship's hull was full of debris, optic fiber cables dangling from the ceiling, wide, rubber-like tubes with water and another liquid dripping from it, Ash and hardened lava poured inside. Russ and Anne crawled over a section of the corridor where the lava almost covered it.

-"This place is empty" Russ told her "Have you seen any objects? Computers? Cargo boxes? Furniture? These guys are minimalistic to the core."

-"Maybe the stripped the place after the crash… or one of their salvage teams, just as we do" Anne responded.

-"We need something to claim the place" Russ said "Any object from the ship of the crew, you know the rules"

-"Let's see if they left something in the cargo hold" Anne agreed, they went out to another corridor where they could already stand, ahead, a strange blue light shone. They heard a buzz and soon the little drone appeared before them. They were at the right level.

The cargo hold was large, far larger than the derelict's bridge. Its walls had an organic appearance like the rest of the ship. Anne felt as they were inside a large animal, like those representations of Jonah inside the sea creature called the Leviathan. Anne stepped onto something, she looked down and saw a broken vessel, and she picked it up.

It was carved in grey soapstone with strange markings. She'd shown the object to Russ.

-"Look at this, we can take it as claim" Anne said.

-"Yes, but let me see what's over there" The hall was filled with mist, Russ ventured beyond.

Meanwhile Anne saw more of the broken vessels all over the floor. Looked like the ship was carried them and they broke with the crash. But they were all empty, otherwise its contents would be scattered all around the hold. She saw her husband climb down a step and walked towards him, don't wanting to lose him from sight.

-"Look at this, Anne!" Russ exclaimed.

-"What is it?" Anne said, walking towards her husband.

-"I dunno, but they looks like eggs or something"

Russ was excited, standing on one low platform covered in a strange blue mist, part of the curved wall was broken and the lava flow was poured inside, half of the platform buried on it and partially burned, but in the area that was intact, some strange ovoid objects were placed in at regular intervals. Anne could see that the lava flow had burned some of the "eggs" but clearly some of them survived.

-"Are they alive?" Anne asked. As far as she knew, the objects can be some kind of organic cargo crates and not eggs.

-"Looks like they're dead" Russ replied, he was standing next to one of the objects and touched it "Dry dead" He swept his flashlight over the rest of the cargo hold and suddenly he saw something. The "skin" of the egg at the far end became translucent in contact with the flashlight's beam. Something inside twitched.

-"What the Hell?! One's still alive!" He exclaimed and then he approached the object.

-"Careful" Anne warned "We don't know what they are"

-" I just want to see it closer" The upper part of the ovoid opened like a grotesque rose bud, four petals turned outward exposing the inside of the object. Inside, Russ saw a fleshy yellow material covered with a whitish fluid that pulsed like a heart. "There's something inside, it's kind of gross, like –"

He didn't finished the sentence, something exploded inside and the next thing Anne saw was her husband fell backwards grabbing something on his face, she saw the yellowish finger-like legs and a long segmented tail coiled around Russ' neck.

-"Russ!" She cried, but his husband was fighting a losing fight. By the time she reached him, his arms relaxed. The creature had left him unconscious… or worse. Anne tried with all her strength to pull the little monster off his face but was firmly attached, and the creature tightened it's coil around the neck. With no other option, Anne grabbed her husband's arms and dragged him out to the tractor, hoping that by the time the help arrived it wasn't too late.

\- o –

On the back of the Daihotai tractor, Colonial Marshal Topher Wilson looked at Russ and the creature as Anne finished her story. The little alien was still clinging tightly to the face of man; the only signs were the pulsations of flattened sacks on the creature's side, almost like the bags of those old gas masks of the First World War in the early 20th century. It would be be a long, long way back to the colony.

\- o –

A/N: Hello Readers, I hope you've enjoyed this chapter, an extended version of the deleted scene in Aliens, later reinstated in the extended cut. As I said before I haven't read "River of Pain" but as in the comic "Aliens: Newt's Tale", the colonists investigate the derelict's interior and them got facehuggered too. That was not sense to me as Anne most likely had warned them about the creatures and in "River of Pain" the marines guarded the place. Here, Colonial Marshal attended Anne's call for rescue and the colonist would not venture into the derelict.

In response to Nathan's review (and others), you're right, the colonists didn't have pulse rifles or another military grade equipment, but most likely they had light weapons as shotguns, pistols and hunting rifles as in Alien: Isolation. In Aliens, Apone said there was light arms fire and improvised explosive devices, most likely seismic charges. Also in response at your idea of having different types of aliens, the answer is probably, because the colony has cattle and probably pets.


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 5**

**June 22th, 2179. Hadley's Hope terraforming colony's Med-Lab, before dawn.**

-"How's Russ, Dr. Kent?" A worried Anne asked the chief medical practitioner.

-"It's alive" he responded after checking life-signs "As what is that thing doing it to him, we're gonna find about soon"

As soon as they arrived at the colony, they brought Russ Jorden right to medical, there, Dr. Kent was waiting on the south lock. Anne had asked one of the colonists to take Newt and Timmy back to their apartment, because they passed the night inside the cramped tractor and hadn't slept enough. The kids protested but Anne had assured them she will be with them as soon as Russ was OK.

The Medical wing of Hadley's Hope was small, located in the same block and floor as Operations; it consisted of a small analysis laboratory and an observation area with some stretchers. Observation area acted as a quarantine zone in the rare case of a contagious pathogen, it can be sealed and its double duroplastic windows were soundproof. Russ was laying on the analysis lab, on the retractable berth of the auto-doc, a MRI-like diagnostic machine for X-ray, magnetic resonance and ultrasound imaging.

The plank retracted inside the machine and its plastic lid closed, the computer emitted a series of beeps as a scanner ran through Russ' body and the parasite attached to him.

-"Well, life signs normal: EGK, temperature, respiration… Except for being unconscious, he's perfectly fine." Dr. Kent checked the black screen. "Let's run a battery set on the parasite, starting with a complete Magnetic resonance."

-"How's possible he's breathing with that thing over his face?" Al Simpson asked who was on Operations and at that moment showed up, with the intention of keeping up with the events. Lidecker was behind him.

Dr. Kent manipulated the keyboard until a three-dimensional image of the body and the creature appeared on the screen; He noticed that although the creature had the appearance of a hand with long fingers, it did not possessed internal bone structure but rather was like a chitinous exoskeleton, the internal distribution of organs was extremely strange, and he made them known.

-"First to all, the creature had a long proboscis, you can see it here" he said, pointing at the image of a long, fleshy tube "It introduced it through the patient's mouth, down the esophagus into the stomach cavity."

Kent zoomed into another part of the creature's anatomy: "Second, these 'sacs' have a spongy tissue and an internal structure similar to the bronchial tubes in a lung, that indicates that the alien is not some kind of an arthropod since they do not have lungs. Odd thing is, they're connected with those conduits at the base of the flaps"

-"What's your impression, Doc?" Lidecker asked.

-"I'm not a xenobiologist, but I guess these animal –or whatever it is –use these pores to extract oxygen from the atmosphere and introduce it to the victim's nose, keeping them alive."

-"And that tube?" Anne intervened. "Is it feeding?"

-"Possibly, Parasites use toxins in order to appease their hosts; it is possible that the organism did not expect Russ to fall unconscious since the human being is not his usual guest. I wonder what kind of organism is the prey of this creature?" he said, and then told the nurse "I need blood tests from Jorden and the creature. Just be careful, it tries to strangle him every time it feels threatened."

-"Yes, Dr. Kent" the nurse agreed.

-"Don't worry, Anne. Go home with your kids, I'll call you if something happened" the Doctor said to Anne, but the woman wouldn't leave her husband until everything was fine, or at least until she knew what was his status.

The middle-aged Nurse took two syringes from a stainless steel tray and prepared to follow the doctor's order. She punctured Russ' right arm and extracted a blood sample, she put it on a stainless steel tray and proceed to take one from the creature.

-"I'm gonna put some anesthetic on it" The alien reacted when the nurse touched and rubbed it with a mild anesthetic liquid in order to place the needle between two of the fingers. "There it is, now, just a little –"

When the nurse punctured the creature's exoskeleton, a strong jet of a green-yellowish liquid spurred from it, splashing all over the syringe and the woman's hand.

-"Aaaaahggggghhhhh –" The woman screamed as a hiss and a cloud of whitish steam came out of the splash.

Everyone looked surprised at the woman who was holding her hand, the syringe fell to the floor where the liquid melted the metal and fell to the lower level. Marshal Wilson fell backwards on the floor from the chair where he had been sitting all this time in silence. On the ground he exclaimed:

\- "What the hell was that?!"

Dr. Kent ran to the nearest washing station and emptied a container of water on the nurse's hand who kept screaming; the water diluted the liquid but did not diminish its potency. The woman fainted from the pain and the screams ceased, but not the horror reactions of Dr. Kent, Anne, Simpson, Lidecker and Marshal Wilson.

-"She passed out" the doctor said, after checking vitals and then he examined the wound, the flesh had been chemically burnt, carbonized almost to the bone, he applied painkillers and covered it with a bandage "It was some kind of acid"

-"It cut through the floor to the basement" Wilson said, peering through the hole, he saw an irregular hole on the corridor's base below. A surprised colonist standing there, as the acid almost hit him. He looked up.

-"I'm Ok, I'm Ok" he said, and then he added "luckily, it didn't hit the tank or we'd be wasted, man" he pointed at the autogenous oxygen welding tank I was using to repair the corridor.

-"Al, I need you lock down medical until we know how to deal with this. Authorized personnel only" Wilson talked to the administrator. "Doctor, we need to know what that creature is and how to take it off Russ, without killing us in the process"

-"That is going to be difficult as the bloody bastard has acid for blood" Simpson said.

-"Maybe is not its blood" Doctor Kent ventured "It's probable that the creature is feeding on the stomach acid and metabolizing it in something else, more powerful as defense. Dart frogs metabolize formic acid from the ants they consume and produce deadly venom from their skin. But this creature's defense is far more dangerous; it melted the steel floor and killed one person in contact. Only fluorosulfuric and carborane acids are that strong."

-"Doctor, move Russ to the observation room while we find a way to neutralize that acid, and keep an eye on him twenty four" Simpson ordered. "Anne, go watch your children, I'll call you when ready."

-"Fine" Anne finally agreed. The medical staff would monitor her husband both directly or through the room's CCTV cameras.

-"Marshal, go to the terraforming bay and talk to Derrick, see if they know a way to neutralize the acid safely" Simpson added.

-"Sure" the Marshal headed towards the exit and took the corridor to the Warehouses, on the east side of the complex.

\- o –

Two hours later, Dr. Kent was typing on the terminal, finishing a report on the medical condition of patient Russ Jorden. While he wrote, he occasionally watched the CCTV screen on the patient and his fellow wounded nurse, still unconscious in a bunk.

* * *

**Medical Chart**

Examiner: Kent, Robert Date: June 22nd, 2179 Medical file# 000532-HH2-2179

Name: Jorden, Russ

D/O/B: 04/11/2144 Age: 35 Sex: Male.

Vitals: NIPB: 108/68 HR: 89 bpm SPO2: 98% RR: 16 rpm Temp: 36.3 °C

History of Present Illness:

The patient, a man in his thirties admitted unconscious with a suspected parasitic life form (classification pending) attached to his face by leaping and wrapping its legs around the head and a long segmented tail around the neck.

Physical Examination:

Initial assessment of the patient shows no changes in vitals, just a drop in the blood pressure, heart rate and respiration, consistent with an unconscious person. Temperature is normal, not symptoms of hypothermia or fever. The organism is firmly attached and any attempt to remove it reacts by tightening the embrace.

Procedures:

Examination by magnetic resonance and X-rays

Blood sample from the victim for analysis.

Blood sample from the parasite.

XRF analysis of parasite exoskeleton

Results:

MRI and X-Ray scan shows the parasite introduced a long proboscis through the patient's esophagus down to the gastric cavity, presumably to feed on gastric fluids.

Physical examination of the unknown parasite determined it has exoskeleton structure similar to those of insects, the body is composed of a main cephalothorax segment with no visible head, eyes or mouthpieces, eight long, segmented legs extend from the thorax four each side. On the lower thorax, two flat pulsating sacs extend sideways. These sacs had an internal soft structure similar to bronchial sacs which is assumed are pumping oxygen into the host's body, keeping him alive.

Blood samples analyses had no traces of fungi, bacterial, viral or prion infection; but instead reveal a powerful neurotoxin based in a cyanose compound and traces of di-methyl sulfoxide.

X-Ray fluorescence analysis of the creature's exoskeleton determines its main component is a protein polysaccharides covered skin cells similar to the chitin of insects, albeit different. Traces of Silicon and Polytetrafluoroethylene detected.

Blood sample from the parasite would prove to be impossible, internal fluids of the creature are extremely acidic, probably based on fluorosulfuric or carborate acids, as they melted stainless steel, plastic and caused severe burns in human skin (Attached Medical file# 000533-HH2-2179).

Opinion:

The parasitic creature attach to a host and proceed to feed in the hydrochloric acid from the victim's stomach, metabolizing it into a more powerful acid stored between skin layers as defense; much like the dart frogs use ant's formic acid to create their neurotoxins. Traces of tetrafluoroethylene traces indicate they have natural, organic Teflon as protection against its own corrosive fluids.

We don't have enough data for a successful treatment or means of detach the parasite, but if the creature indeed is feeding on the stomach fluids, they will detach by its own once it's satisfied. This would take days or even weeks but as the creature is an alien life form and humans are not their intended prey, feeding time is unknown.

Although the parasite creature it's not a carrier of fungi, bacterial, viral or prion infection, it must be considered dangerous.

**END OF THE REPORT _**

* * *

He re-read the file and checked if he hadn't omitted anything. He was disappointed that the colony did not have access to the Peter Weyland Memorial Library; there he would check if there was any record of a creature like that before. But the library was so extensive that its installation on the servers of a small terraforming settlement was prohibitively expensive, only the most developed colonies and corporate trading posts in space stations such as Gateway could access that information. Satisfied, he pressed ENTER and the report was uploaded in the colony's log.

Dr. Kent turned off the computer and headed for the observation room, it was early morning of June 22nd, almost 24 hours since the parasite had attacked Russ Jorden. He took his coffee mug and filled it on the medical lab's coffee pot. The rest of the night shift was preparing for going home and the day shift hasn't arrived yet. He checked on the burnt nurse, her vitals were stable and soon she will be out of danger, but her hand was badly damaged and Kent suspected she would certainly lose it due to necrosis.

He took a last look at Russ in the observation room before he went to rest, and what he saw made him almost throw his coffee cup, the parasite was gone.

\- o –

A/N: Hello readers, thanks again for following this story. Well, if you had read my other story Alien Isolation: Monster Maze you'll notice is similar to the chapter in which Dr. Lindgard check Catherine Foster and the medical chart follows almost the same structure as the Autopsy report from that story, trying to match the alien's physiology with real facts. I'm not a medic so if there's a mistake please take it as a creative license. I assume Dr. Kent would compare the facehugger with a tick, or any other parasite and the defense mechanism with those of Earth animals as the Amazon dart frog.

I don't wanted a repetition of the med bay scene in _Alien_, in which Dallas or Ash won't get hurt by the acidic blood and as in _Alien Isolation: Monster Maze_ they didn't have the facehugger but instead just Marlow's description and Foster scans shown the chestburster inside. Here, they hadn't seen the chestburster yet as the implantation wasn't completed at the moment of the scan. They think the facehugger is a parasite, not a delivery system or larval stage, they'll discover that in the worst way later.

Also, you may had noticed the little easter egg as Derrick Russell was mentioned, I did liked _Fire and Stone_ but this was just a little homage not part of the continuity, I'll follow the film's canon so neither _Fire and Stone_ or _River of Pain_ happened. Additional thanks to Nathan for his suggestions, Hope you all had enjoyed this chapter and don't forget to comment.


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER 6**

**June 22nd, Hadley's Hope Operation's block**

Newt and Tim followed their mother till Operations block, Dr. Kent had called Anne about Russ medical condition and Anne had rushed there. Although she had said Newt and Timmy stay home, they had followed anyway, wanting to know about their father's health.

-"Did you know they'll let us in, Timmy?" Newt asked, walking on the corridor right below med-lab. A technician was welding a metal plate on the floor and ceiling.

-"Careful kids!" he yelled.

The two climbed the stairs to the second level, just outside the medical area. Deputy Ramirez and another Colonial marshal were there, guarding the entrance.

-"Sorry kids, you can't get in" Deputy Ramirez said.

-"But, we want to see Dad" Newt begged.

-"Only authorized personnel. Go home; your mother is there, please." Ramirez insisted.

-"Just obey Deputy Ramirez, kids." Mary Coles appeared on the hallway, she was carrying her pest control equipment; Ramirez let her pass inside.

\- o -

After Dr. Kent had called Anne about the status of her husband, he called Mary asking her for helping him capturing the escaped parasite. He explained the situation and told her the organism was dangerous; he want it contained before another colonist was attacked. In fact, Topher Wilson had returned from the warehouse were terraformer Derrick Russell gave him a nahtrolite solution -basically sodium bicarbonate -which potentially neutralize the creature's acidic fluids.

-"Are you sure that thing is contained inside the observation room, Doctor?" Mary asked, pulling her Arious motion tracker from the bag.

-"The room is sealed. There has to be hiding inside, under the cabinets or perhaps up in the monitor's beam, near the sprinkler system." Kent said, "There's no way it has escaped."

-"Is Russ okay?" Anne was worried about her husband.

-"Seem he's fine, Anne. He's breathing, but we can't enter until that thing is contained." He explained "Mary, are you sure you can capture the little acid filled bastard?"

-"I only need one thing: Where it is" she said, pressing the baton's button and an electric spark surged from its double tip. After that she turned on the motion tracker and the black screen depicted range and position data in green. She swept the medical bay to test calibrate it. Anne, Marshal Wilson and Dr. Kent appeared as green dots on the screen, she pointed it towards the observation room and the device shown no targets besides a faint signal from Russ Jorden.

-"Where's it?" Marshal Wilson asked.

-"Dunno, it's not moving" Mary hit the device with her palm, the screen flickered but didn't show the creature "Slept or fled"

-"We had to get inside" Wilson said, "No other option, get ready. Doctor, Anne, stay here."

The Marshal opened the door and he entered, followed by Mary, both holding stun batons. Dr. Kent closed the door behind them.

-"Come, little bastard, I have something for you" Mary said, brandishing the baton "this won't hurt... well, maybe"

-"Careful Coles, that thing is not a rat" Wilson warned her.

They reached the bunk in which Russ laid unconscious, peered down it and the adjacent cabinet; Nothing. They moved to the far edge of the room and checked the air vents, they weren't burnt or opened. The room was sealed.

Mary turned up, she wasn't sure if the creature could climb but given her resemblance to a scorpion or a spider, she supposed so. The panels of the false ceiling were neither moved nor broken; the creature hadn't hidden there. Mary feared that the little bastard had climbed into the open space between the roof and the complex's hull and escaped, the creature could be anywhere.

-"Where the fuck did it go?" Wilson asked. He was standing just below the monitors suspended by a metal beam next to the fire detection system. A segmented long tail appeared from the space between the cables and fell on the back of the Colonial Marshal followed by a beige-yellowish body with long legs.

-"Son of a –!" Mary pounced on him ready to shock it with the baton, but before that happened, Wilson threw the little creature to the floor where it remained with its legs curled up.

-"Wait! Wait! It's dead" Wilson shouted, examining the alien. He touched the creature's ventral part with the baton, but nothing happened.

-"Fuck, it scared me." Mary relaxed. "Almost zapped you Marshal."

-"Don't worry, Coles. I've seen worse things. It reminded me of my days as a colonial marine and that bug hunt in Helene-215. Hell, those Krites' bites hurt like a bitch." he said and he turned to the observation window gesturing "Doctor, it's safe, little fucker is dead."

Doctor Kent and Anne came inside, followed by two more technicians from the med-lab. As the doctor checked Russ, the technicians picked up the creature.

-"Well, it seems that the parasite did not leave permanent damage, in fact its vital signs seem to be normalizing." Dr. Kent said "He'll wake up soon; anyway, we will check it again with the auto-doc"

-"Thank you, Doctor" Anne was relieved

The two walked towards the analysis lab and Kent admired the little monster lying over a stained steel tray before an optical microscope. He touched one of the finger-like legs, it was completely rigid. The proboscis in his belly was lax, with a fleshy consistency. Now he could observe it better, sprouting from the body through an elongated opening almost of vaginal shape.

The doctor grabbed his auscultation equipment and examined the creature's innards.

-"No acidic fluids, seems it neutralizes on the creature's death, probably by releasing an alkali solution producing the usual exothermic reaction." He dictated "Look, here, this _rigor mortis_ due to the heat generated by the acid-base exothermic reaction.

-"At least we know they're sensitive to heat" a technician said

-"If the acidic fluids are based on fluorine it will highly reactive to heat." The other technician concluded.

-"Good to know" Mary said "If there are more of those parasites out there, a good old flamethrower will do the job"

-"I'm not sure it's a parasite anymore." Dr. Kent said without taking his sight off the microscope. "No internal organs, no stomach, intestines, or even a heart. It's just an empty sac inside and nerves. What's the purpose of this organism?"

On the observation room, someone coughed. "Dr. Kent, It is Russ, he's waking up" Anne's voice interrupted them.

-"Ok, let's see how he is doing. Put that thing on the container, we will check it out later" Dr. Kent ordered, and the technician put the dead creature inside the nahtrolite solution filled tank.

\- o –

The two kids went back on the housing block; there they ran into Aaron Lidecker.

-"I heard your dad is in medical" he said.

-"Yeah, but they didn't let us see him. Ramirez is guarding the door." Tim responded.

-"I know a way in. Let's go" Aaron invited them, Timmy promptly followed him.

-"But… Mom said we weren't to leave our quarters" Newt hesitated. She suspected what was that way Aaron was talking about.

-"Newt, are you coming or not?" Aaron asked, impatient.

-"See you later Rebecca" Tim said waving his hand, and followed Aaron.

-"Tim, don't leave me" she begged, and after five seconds, she ran after them "Guys, wait for me!"

Aaron stopped at a metal grate which reads "Maintenance access 02".

-"Aaron, we've never gone this way before." Newt said, somewhat worried.

-"Quit your whining, are you scared?" Aaron mocked her, and then addressed to Tim "Maybe you oughta send your sister back home"

-"Just, leave her alone. Come Rebecca, This is the way to the Med-Lab; don't you want to see Dad?" Tim said, and then encouraged her and he entered the tunnel after Aaron, second later Newt ventured inside too.

Unlike the ventilation ducts, the maintenance tunnels were slightly larger so that engineers and their equipment could enter them. Water and gas pipes as well as power lines ran through them, Aaron and the brothers used it to guide themselves, taking care of not touching the exposed lines. They'd get to a vertical shaft with a ladder formed by steps welded to its smooth wall. They climbed it to the second level.

-"This way, follow me" Aaron said, and continued crawling. Overhead, there was a series of metal grates, Newt heard voices.

-"Shhhh, were here." Aaron told them,

He continued crawling towards a small open area where the conduct it rose to the ground level of the medical area. From there they could see almost everything inside the med lab; Dr. Kent was talking to Anne and Russ, who was already awake, but still disoriented and weak. They stopped and listening carefully.

\- o –

Hello readers, welcome back. Thanks for your suggestions, some of them I have already considered, but the story so far is the alien is about to burst in the next chapter. Here I wanted a brief novelization and expanded scene of Newt, Tim and Aaron from the comic _Newt's Tale_, give them a reason to crawl in the ducts to see Russ in the med-bay. Also the med bay scene was similar to that of _Alien_ when the facehugger disappeared and _Aliens_ where Newt and Ripley were trapped there. I wanted Marshal Wilson and Mary Coles interact in hunting the facehugger (They didn't know it is dead yet) and a reason for them to be there when the alien finally burst.

I had made adjusts to the last chapter, when the acid blood melted the med-bay's floor, there was a little dialog from a worker who was almost hurt. Another thing I want to show is the day/night cycle in the moon, very important for the story. In Colonial Marines technical manual it's stated that days and nights lasts 24 hours and 73 hours of twilight. That give us June 22nd when Russ was attacked was before sunset so the alien would burst during nighttime.

I want a very brutal and graphic scene for the birth of the queen so maybe it takes a while because I don't want a repetition of any scene in the movies. Meanwhile, you can read and review my other stories: _Alien Isolation: Monster Maze, an Unnoficial novelization_, _Predator: The last Hunt_ and _Prometheus: New Discoveries_, all on the same shared continuity.


	7. Chapter 7

**CHAPTER 7**

**June 23rd, 2179. Hadley's Hope terraforming colony, LV-426, Night cycle**

Zeta2 Reticuli passed below the horizon while Calpamos filled a quarter of the sky where the thick grey clouds didn't cover the celestial vault. The twilight's purple tones gave pass to dark grey, black and dark blue. The colony's exterior floodlights turned on, bathing the central street with an eerie white led light. Hadley's Hope weather station reported a drop in temperature and a rise in wind speed. The few people working outside took cover and the main entrances of the complex were closed.

Personnel in Operations warned the farmers put their cattle in the underground pens. During the next 24 hours human activity would now be carried out exclusively indoors, traveling from one side to the other through the tunnel and corridors that connected the different parts of the complex.

Meanwhile inside the Colony's med-bay, oblivious to the activity that was taking place outside, Dr. Kent checked Russ Jorden, who had just woken up from his encounter with the alien life form.

-"How're you feeling, Russ?" Dr. Kent asked, while checking him with a stethoscope.

-"Tired, dizzy, my throat hurts" the man responded, and coughed "Coff… Coff, what happened?"

-"Don't you remember?" Anne asked him. "We were on that derelict, you were inspecting this… egg or something, and that creature jumped onto your face"

-"I… I don't remember, I was dreaming something about a dark place, and choking" he tried to remember, but all was diffuse.

-"Amnesia, probably due to the neurotoxins produced by that creature." Dr. Kent explained "I need to check you in the auto-doc, make sure you are fully recovered and then you can go home with your wife and children."

-"Ok, Doctor… coff coff… can I take some water?" Russ asked "my throat sores and I can't breathe well"

-"Here, drink it slowly" Anne poured some water in a glass and offered it to Russ. He drank the liquid desperately.

-"Take it easy, you're going to choke" Dr. Kent warned him.

-"Coff… Coff… Agghhh it hurts" Russ groaned. "Feel as if I had barbed wire in my throat… coff… coff" Immediately after that he vomited. Anne held him a bucket so that the contents didn't fall on the floor, then handed him a paper towel.

-"That creature's proboscis must have damaged your esophagus when it was forced in." Dr. Kent guessed "C'mon, get into the auto-doc. I'm gonna check you right now."

Anne helped her husband get up from the stretcher and walk to the MRI machine, there he lay back down and the plastic cover closed. Inside the maintenance vent, Newt, Timmy and Aaron saw the man lying with his bare torso while a blue laser scanned him from top to bottom. While the machine finished its analysis, Dr. Kent gave his impression to Anne, Wilson, Mary and Al Simpson, who entered at that time waiting for a report on the man's health.

-"How's he doing, Dr. Kent. Will he be ok?" Al Simpson asked.

-"Apparently, the parasite had died" He explained "It has to be something to do with incompatible biochemistry, as the creature is based in fluorine compounds and we are carbon based. All I can guess is the creature can't feed on Russ the same way we can't feed on cellulose or another non carbon based protein, the parasite simply died."

-"But you weren't sure it was a parasite" Wilson intervened.

-"There are anatomic differences" Dr. Kent pointed at the creature floating in the duroplastic container "Fluorosulfonic acid stored between silicon layer would act as a biological battery similar to those of an electric eel. That's just a theory of course, because we're comparing a non-terrestrial animal with a terrestrial one. That's the problem with xenomorphic life forms."

-"Xenomorphic life forms?" Al Simpson asked.

-"Yeah, every time a new life-form is discovered and xeno-biologists can't put them in one Order or even a Kingdom, the designation is 'Xenomorph', which is the Greek term for 'Strange shape' followed by a number indicating the date of discovery"

-"I prefer the term: Little ugly mother–" Mary said, her sentence was interrupted by a series of beeps from the MRI machine.

-"What–? The scans had found something" Dr. Kent said, he typed on the console and a 3D image appeared on the screen.

-"Oh my god" Anne exclaimed, followed by expressions of fright, fear and disgust of the rest.

Beneath the white shape of Russ' ribcage and inside the esophageal tube, another strange shape was twisting slightly. A serpentine body approximately 40 cm long, with an elongated tubular head approximately one third of the total length. A rounded eyeless face opened its snout slightly, showing razor sharp fangs. As the creature moved, Russ Jorden coughed.

-"We have to get it out! Now!" Dr. Kent said. The others were mute, Anne was especially horrified.

Dr. Kent hurried to open the sliding door of the auto-doc, pressed a few buttons, and the duro-plastic rose slowly. Suddenly, as if the creature inside the man was aware of the danger it was in, began to squirm more and more, with each movement his pointed tail and mouth full of teeth hurt the man. Anne and the others saw on the screen how the creature was twisting and Russ was debating and moaning in pain on the metal plate.

-"Coff Coff… Aaaaaghhh" He coughed and screamed, then coughed blood, staining the polycarbonate lid of the machine.

-"Jesus Christ!" Dr. Kent exclaimed. "It's coming out!"

On the screen, the little monster bit the inside of the ribs, making its way biting. Now Russ' screaming turned into shrieks. Blood pouring from his mouth and the fingers of his hands twisted unnaturally. Finally, the shrieks stopped as a blood covered, orange-red, eyeless head emerged from Russ chest. Dr. Kent backed in horror as Anne cried loudly. Wilson and Mary were mute, their eyes wide opened. Al Simpson vomited.

The creature screeched as it peered around, and Dr. Kent pressed a button. The auto-doc's lid stopped and closed again, leaving the creature trapped inside before it could escape. In the commotion, no one heard Newt, Timmy and Aaron screaming inside the vent.

-"Daaaaaddy!" Rebecca 'Newt' Jorden screamed, crying.

Dr. Kent again pressed some buttons; these were the ones which initiated a decontamination process, filling the machine with formaldehyde based gas. He didn't know if the gas will kill the creature but there wasn't time to think about it, it was more of an act of desperation than protocol. The little creature attempted to escape the machine, pounding furiously against the polycarbonate window until it cracked.

The creature jumped out and the gas leaked into the room. Marshal Wilson drawn his service pistol and fired upon the creature, but failed as the gas irritated his eyes. The gas leak turned on the sprinkler system and the room was covered with water, so Mary could not use her electric baton.

As the alarms blared, Simpson tried to escape the room, but Wilson shouted, still rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand "No! Lock the door! It must not escape the room!"

Simpson obeyed.

Dr. Kent tried to attack it using a scalpel but the creature pounced, biting him on the arm and he dropped the instrument. The alien was trying to escape but its exits were closed, it grunted and screeched furiously.

Water slipped through a drain in the floor of the medical room, and the creature noticed. It crawled up there, punched a hole in the drain grate and slipped inside. Its shrieks echoed as it lose in the drainage system.

-"Coff… Coff… Coff…" Anne was coughing intensely, Dr. Kent was trying to stop the bleeding where the creature had bitten him with a bandage; Wilson still had his eyes irritated and Mary and Simpson were blocking the entrance to the Med-bay. Suddenly they heard screams inside the far end of the room's ventilation grate.

-"Mooooommy!"

-"Newt!" Anne cried, and then she ran towards the grate and pulled it open. A crying Newt came out, followed by the two kids. "Newt! Tim! What are you doing in there?!"

-"Mommy? Is Daddy –?!" Newt looked at the blood stained auto-doc and the red trail on the floor, partially diluted and blurred by water.

-"Don't look baby" Anne said, covering her eyes with her hand. Tim hugs her. The door opened and Brad Lidecker and the other technicians on Operations stormed the room.

-"Dad!" Aaron called his father.

-"Aaron!" Lidecker exclaimed. The first thing he thought was that the children, led by their son, had been playing again inside the ventilation system and had caused a fire in the medical room but then he saw the blood stained auto-doc with Russ' corpse inside, bleeding from a hole on his chest. "What the Hell is happening here?"

-"Brad, we have a problem here, a real big one" It was all Al Simpson said.

\- o –

Ok that was short, but basically it shown what the alien embryo did to Russ. None of the films had shown us the chestbursting both from outside and inside, this was possible thanks to the MRI machine. I think I'll add some horror because you did not only saw and hear the victim but also the little monster literally biting its way out. The witnesses immediately tried to kill the alien but unfortunately they didn't due to the chaos. Comic and Novels made the alien escape through the vents but I made it escape into the sewers, located in the sub-basement, the same place as the tunnel leading to the Atmosphere processing plant. The bug hunt begins.


	8. Chapter 8

**CHAPTER 8**

**Somewhere in the sub-basement of Hadley's Hope colony complex, LV-426.**

The little creature fell on a water filled area; it swam using its tail to a low platform where it jumped out the pool, Safe at last. It had fled, it was its first conscious action, an instinct driven impulse because it was still small, and unprotected. All that will change once the creature growth, its skin would harden to an almost impenetrable armor. But until then, it needs to hide… and feed.

Feeding was not a response to hunger; the creature didn't need to metabolize food for energy, which was achieved in a much more efficient way. No, the food would provide biomass to grow, and its species grew a lot ... and very fast.

As the rest of its species, the creature didn't have eyes; they relied on a completely different set of sensorial organs. Smell was important; with a vomero-nasal organ formed by tiny lids over the mouth, the creatures detected even traces amounts of aromas, mainly pheromones, used both to recognize prey and their moods and to communicate with other members of their species. Its elongated head had a hollow cavity used as a resonance chamber which amplified sounds its brain translated into tri-dimensional spatial data, showing the creature direction and distance a noise came from. And last, a series of low-resistivity gel-filled pores on its head acted as the Lorenzini ampules of a shark, detecting electromagnetic fields from any machinery or even biological activity.

Soon, the creature's brain made a mental map of its surroundings; the area was small but not confined as several tunnels and some pipes connected to the outside. It was wet and had traces of gases similar to the chamber where the creature's egg was incubated but it was cold, the creature needed a warm place to grow.

A screeching sound filled the creature's resonance chamber; something was crawling on a pipe above. It crept up using pipes as support and reached the pipe behind the source of the noise, it was a little animal, smaller than itself: a Rat.

The rat stopped, sensing something wrong; it turned around and saw the strange crawling creature behind it and smell it, it was odd, something the rat haven't smelled before and it was unpleasant.

The creature hissed and lounged at the rat, distressed, the rodent screeched and fled top speed over the pipe. The creature gave chase; the darkness wasn't an obstacle as it can follow the rat's scent and steps. The rat crawled through a broken grate into a large pipe, part of the drainage system till it felt safe, then turned in a junction towards its colony.

The creature followed the trail and reached the rat's nest. The first male rat which attacked it was sprayed in acid from the bite wound; the rest of the rats hesitated frightened by the trespasser. The creature set out to do what its millennial instinct insistently ordered. In about five minutes it had achieved what Mary Coles had not been able to: Exterminate the entire rats' population in Hadley's Hope sub-basement. With enough bio-matter available, the creature cocooned itself and growth.

\- o –

**June 24th, 2179. Hadley's Hope Operations center, LV-426. Few hours before Dawn**

-"This is the only place where that thing may be hiding" Al Simpson said, pointing in the blue screen where the colony's blueprints displayed.

-"Near the water treatment plant?" Marshal Wilson asked.

After the creature had escaped through the colony's drainage system, they had gone to Operations to consult the plans of the complex to try to predict where the creature would hide and where it could go.

-"Assuming it hasn't fled" Mary interrupted them; her face was still pale from the impression.

-"No, the area is closed; there are no scheduled maintenance there so it's isolated." Simpson stated. "Meanwhile, we have to keep the matter quiet, I don't want to cause unnecessary panic. Are you sure you and your staff can deal with the problem, Marshal?"

-"It's a bug hunt, Simpson. I'm a little rusty but I'm sure I can deal with that little son of a bitch. I owe it to the Jordens" Wilson said, he was still angry by the creature's escape and the fact he couldn't kill it. "Mary, I need one or two of those motion trackers of you"

-"Yes, Wilson, over here" Mary said, walking towards the exit. Wilson and Deputy Ramirez promptly followed.

-"Do you want to send a report to Earth?" Lidecker, near communications, asked.

-"We're on the dark side. Transmissions would not be possible in a few more hours. Besides, by the time they receive the report, the situation would be contained, no need to rush. We'll sent a complete report once the creature had been killed and we had decide what to do with that derelict ship"

\- o –

Unlike the main levels, the basement and sub-basement were not prefabricated parts and brought down by the colony ships and deposited on thick concrete pillars. These levels were excavated about ten meters below ground in the live rock in which the complex was based, so its appearance was not that of an industrial zone but rather resembled a mine. Doesn't matter how many lights they installed, it was dark grey everywhere.

The elevator's door opened in the sub-basement level, Marshal Topher Wilson, technician Mary Coles, Deputy Ramírez and terraformer Simon Breckenridge stepped out. Mary and Breckenridge had motion trackers while the colonial marshals had their shotguns. They chose the short range, wide dispersion shots weapons because they were the best way to kill the fast and elusive creature in close quarters, and causing minimum damage to the infrastructure.

Marshal Wilson was using the buddy system from his days in the Marine 70 program, a total re organization of the Colonial marines after the Tientsin campaign designed for mobility and efficiency. The point man sweeps the area with the tracker whilst his buddy watches the unscanned area.

-"Any sign of it?" Wilson asked.

-"Not yet" Mary checked the device's screen. "These things had limited range and the basement is huge. Be patient, we'll kill it; Breck, how's your side?"

-"Nothing" he said.

Simon "Breck" Breckenridge was tall, almost imposing comparing with Mary; he was a part pest control technician when not in the terraforming bay regulating the greenhouse soil's pH. He was the one who gave Dr. Kent the nahcolite solution container for the creature.

-"Check those pipes" Wilson said "Spread, we need to cover more terrain, but don't go too far."

There was no standard procedure for a Bug hunt, the Marines or Marshals did usually adapt to the circumstances and the type of prey. Active hunting or destruction of nests and breeding zones were priority. After they'll deal with the creature they need to destroy the remaining eggs in that derelict ship Anne and Russ Jorden discovered before anyone else got infected.

Breckenridge and Ramirez checked the corridor at the right, while he and Mary explored the left one. Walking on the tunnel, Breck saw something hanging from a pipe, in the flashlight beam it was translucent, like a piece of plastic moving with the wind of the tunnel. He approached; the thing dripped a crystalline liquid, almost like some animal's saliva.

He used an electric baton to pick up the thing from the pipe; it no longer looked like a piece of plastic. It was about 50 cm long with the shape and texture of the creature they were looking for.

-"Hey, something's here" he called.

-"What is it?" Mary asked back.

-"I Dunno, it's some kind of shredded skin, like a snake"

\- o –

Alone, the creature was alone; it was alone in that dark, cold and strange place. The creature's kind was gregarious, they need the company of other members of their species to thrive, their collective mind demanded, sharing thoughts and experiences, learning; As soon as it came out of the cocoon it called for others but there was no response. It was alone and it was painful. It couldn't detect the presence of subtle pheromones indicating a nest neither. Inside its primitive simple mind, there was only one course of action. It needed to reproduce.

Fortunately for them, the creature didn't reproduce like most of the animals did, it didn't need a sexual partner or the complexity of mating rituals; it just needs bio-matter and a host and a warm place. The alien use its new abilities as improved hearing capable of detecting multiple targets' direction and range. Smell detected pheromone traces left by an organism even if hours had passed.

Its claws and feet made the creature able to climb and crawl on every surface and its long segmented tail was armed with a barbed tip capable of sting and pierce metal, inside its fanged mouth, the alien possessed a secondary, protruding jaw with silvery, metal teeth. A hard, silicon polysaccharide exoskeleton protected the creature from damage by almost every kinetic weapon with the sole exception of armor piercing rounds. It was a perfect killing machine.

-"I Dunno, it's some kind of shredded skin, like a snake" a voice reached its resonance chamber.

The creature moved slowly towards the source of the noise. It detected more prey in the area, four in all.

-"Stay alert Breck" said another voice.

-"I think is somewhere here" he said, entering the corridor, outside the range of the flashlight.

-"Wait for the Marshal" Ramírez told him, but Breck was out of sight.

Beep, beep, beep. The tracker's shown one green dot ahead: Breckenridge, when Ramirez looked at it, the screen flickered and the dot became two, then the additional contact disappeared. He hit the device but nothing happened, then he thought the battery was low and checked it, but it was eighty percent.

-"Breck, had something on the tracker. Breck? Breck?" the Deputy called, still checking the screen.

No response, He pointed his flashlight ahead and walked there. Marshal Wilson and Coles were inside the other corridor; he can still hear them among the pumps and machinery.

-"Did you notice we hadn't heard any rat?" Mary said.

-"That's good." The Marshal responded

-"That's odd, those damn pests are almost impossible to eradicate. It isn't normal there are none squealing around."

Deputy Ramírez thought about it, it was true. I hadn't heard any animal or other noise down there. He had never came this level but in the bar, Mary Coles complained almost daily that she hadn't been able to locate and eradicate the colony of rats and that their shrieks rumbled throughout the sub-basement.

He heard the tracker beeping again and a contact shown somewhere to his left followed by the sound of something metallic falling. He peered through a tangle of pipes and saw a single rat. It was a large specimen, grey and with large incisors; its marble-like black eyes looking at him.

-"Oh, looks like Coles was wrong, there's something for you here" He said as he pulled out the riot electric baton, sparkling from its double tip.

The rat hissed furiously and then fled, squeezing its body between two pipes and disappeared.

-"Ha, That's right you little shit, run." He said victoriously.

He got up, but when he turned around he saw a form behind him. It hadn't made the slightest noise as it fell from the ceiling. It was large, a dark gray color that allowed it to blend with the surrounding machinery, it had long arms that ended in double fused clawed fingers, an elongated smooth head with an eyeless face, lipless mouth with silver teeth that seemed to be smiling at him, and a long segmented tail ending in a stinger like that of a scorpion.

Before he could do something or even let out a scream, the thing pounced at him at lightning speed and caught him with those long viscous fingers, it lifted his head close to that mouth full of sharp teeth and the last thing he saw was fangs shooting out from inside that mouth to his face. The motion tracker fell to the ground, its screen showed two dots moving away fast.

-"Ramirez, I lost the trail" Breckenridge walked back through the corridor, but the Deputy wasn't there. He saw the flashlight rolling lightly on the ground, its beam illuminated the motion detector and an electric baton covered with the same crystalline substance that I had seen in the pipe.

-"Ramírez? Marshal? Marshal! Come here, it's Ramírez" he called.

-"What happened?" Wilson asked, he and Mary arrived shortly.

-"I lost him, I was checking a trail then he disappeared, I found this" he explained, pointing at the tracker, baton and flashlight.

-"What's this?" said Mary, touching the jelly like substance, it itched. She cleaned it up on his pants. "It itches, like a mild acid"

-"Could've been the creature?" Breck asked.

-"If it was, where's Ramírez? A snake-sized creature can't drag a man" Wilson responded. "Ramírez! Officer? Come in." he called on his headset radio, nothing, just static.

\- o –

Inside the maintenance corridor 7-B, the creature used its secreted resin to glue the Deputy's body to a wall. That mildly acidic resin also acted as a digestive enzyme designed to decompose bio-matter into its protein and aminoacid components at the same time it reorganized them into alien's genetic material, growing an egg out of the victim's body. With the process in motion, the creature set out for a future host.

* * *

A/N: Hello again, here it is, a chapter seen from the alien's POV. I had written the alien's perspective before in Alien Isolation: Monster Maze, it was difficult to get into the creature's mind and I want to avoid any comparison with human mind, for me it's more of an animal and thus, it's thoughts are basic instinct. It's stated the creatures are gregarious, part of a compound mind so I guessed besides hunger or fear, the creature must've feel alone. They need each other and when they can't find another alien the next step is reproduce, making an egg through eggmorphing. At this point, the creature is not a Queen yet.

If you had read Monster Maze, you did know my idea of a Queen is not only for reproductive role but also as command and control when population reached a critical point, usually ten individuals. That is because aliens share memories and thoughts through the gel filled pores on their heads, and as population grows, sharing minds turned tricky. Its gigantic crest is some kind of antenna designed to transmit and receive electromagnetic waves from every creature in existence (I don't like the term telepathy).

Anyway, the scene of the alien abducting Deputy Ramirez is similar to Brett's death, with a rat instead of Jones, but rats are the only animals there on the sub-basement so I can't insert a pet like a ferret, as Deevs suggested. Stay tuned for more soon, and don't forget to comment.


	9. Chapter 9

**CHAPTER 9**

**June 24th, 2179; Sub-basement level of Hadley's Hope terraforming colony, LV-426. Night Cycle**

-"He could not have gone far, look for him" Marshal Wilson said "Use the trackers."

-"Nothing," Mary checked the device "He's not moving."

The black screen of the motion tracker didn't show any contact, as Mary swept the device around, there wasn't any beep. Just two dots corresponding to Breck and Marshal Wilson.

-"Try locating the PDT." Breck suggested. The Personal Data Transmitter was a microchip implanted on every colonist; it issued a signal containing the personal data of each colonist, including his vitals and position by a GPS signal in a specific frequency. Military grade Motion tracker devices as the M314 can detect the signal and display data on the screen but commercial models as those manufactured by _Arious_ lacked that feature.

-"This old models can't do that" Mary clarified "One of those M314 trackers can, but this, you're lucky if it can track anything the size of a rat."

-"Lidecker, come in, Lidecker? This is Wilson." The Marshal called through his radio headset.

-"Lidecker here, what happen Marshal? Did you kill the creature?" Lidecker in Operations, responded.

-"Negative. We lost Ramírez. Please, search his PDT, he's not responding."

-"Wait, we're checking it…" and after a pause, Lidecker added "It's not there. We don't have a signal."

-"That's not possible," he exclaimed "PDT's can transmit even through many rock layers."

-"Maybe it's damaged" Mary wondered.

-"Those things are though. PDT's are EMP hardened, and are implanted inside your skull, unless he had suffered a massive trauma, the transmitter must be working." Breck explained.

-"I don't like this" Wilson said. "Let's find Ramírez, stick together"

They walked a few meters, Wilson at front with the shotgun in hands, Breckenridge next, with the motion tracker pointing ahead and then Mary, with the motion tracker pointing backwards and baton ready.

-"There's something ahead" Wilson said, pointing the flashlight. The beam illuminated a metallic object on the floor: Ramirez's shotgun.

-"Ramírez?" Wilson called "Officer, respond."

Breckenridge approached the weapon; it was lying just under a vertical vent. From it dripped the same crystalline substance.

-"Seems the creature climbed up there, into the basement" he said, pointing the flashlight. "Maybe Ramírez saw this and got there"

-"Without telling us? Leaving his weapon behind?" Wilson asked.

-"Point taken" Breck agreed.

-"Anyway. Let's check the upper level; I want to kill that fucker right now more than ever." Mary intervened. Breck picked up the shotgun and the trio walked towards the staircase leading to the basement level.

Wilson, Breck and Mary climbed the staircase to the colony's basement. This underground level consisted on a series of corridors and tunnels connecting various warehouses, storage rooms, cattle pens and a tunnel leading to the Atmosphere processor's sub-level 01, the tunnel was closed by a pressure door near the south end, somewhere below the operations block.

\- o –

_Woof, woof, woof_. The dog barked insistently. Ronald Baker, the owner, scolded the animal.

\- "Quiet, Rufus; there is nothing down there" But the dog insisted; something attracted his attention in one of the ventilation ducts. "It's probably a rat"

With the storm raging outside, farmers like Ronald Baker keep the cattle –mostly goats and pigs –inside the subterranean cattle pens. Ronald had previously worked on core worlds like Alpha Centaury B, which exported meat to Earth and more. Using his savings, he secured a place in the new colony; his efforts provide meat and other animal products for Hadley's Hope, saving them from exporting it from Earth, whose re-supply ships arrive twice a year.

Of course, here on an inhabited moon, Baker hadn't have to worry about predators or rustlers snatching his cattle, but he kept his loyal dog for company, especially when his wife passed away two years ago.

-"C'mon Boy, let's check the goats; make sure they're OK" Baker hurried up his canine companion.

_Woof, woof, woof_. The dog ran hastily through one of the ventilation ducts, whose grate was lying on the floor, the dog's barking echoed in the vent. Baker crawled behind the animal, worried; the dog had never been like this because of the rats that probably infested the basement.

-"Wait, Rufus! Get back here you dumb dog!" He exclaimed.

The vent was dark and Baker felt something wet on the knees. He didn't have a flashlight but puller a zippo from his pocket. The pale flame illuminated the vent, reflected by the stainless metal walls. The liquid on which he stepped was some kind of lubricant, sticky and translucent liquid. Maybe an oil pipe had broken.

He went deeper into the ventilation system, growling and cursing. Dog's insisting barks were heard deeper inside. When he reached a junction he found fallen pipes that made him crawl on his chest so he turned off his lighter. Suddenly, the barks turned into shrieks and then stopped.

-"Rufus? Where are you Boy…? Rufus? Come here" he called the dog, whistling.

The ventilation duct was silent. Baker felt a cold that ran down his spine. Suddenly, he didn't want to be in there, he crawled back but got hooked on a piece of metal. In the dark beyond, he heard a slight hiss; he pulled frantically but was stuck. The hissing sound was closer; he can even sense a presence, followed by a slight air current.

-"Who's there?" he said nervously, in response, another hiss reached his ears.

He pulled harder but his shirt wasn't released, the sound was getting closer. Now Baker was breathing and snorting desperately. The sound stopped, silence again. Baker pulled his zippo again and lighted on.

He screamed briefly before being cut short, the last thing he saw was a black, eyeless face with silvery teeth which seemed to be smiling at him.

\- o –

-"Did you hear that?" Mary asked Wilson and Breck, "I think I heard someone screaming"

-"I heard it too" Marshal Wilson said. "This way"

They were in the basement level, just above the vent in which Ramírez had disappeared, no trace from him or the creature. They turned on their motion trackers: No contact. At that time, there was no one at the basement level. All people should be in the housing block, in their homes or in Operations block's offices. The colonists rarely go down to the basement, except when there was some routine maintenance work or checking the cattle pens.

-"I think I got something…" Mary checked the tiny black screen "That way"

They walked towards the junction and saw the open grate, but there wasn't anything, any blood, or the strange jelly like substance they had seen before.

-"I lost it… wait, there it is, signal's faint" Mary informed, she hit the device and the screen flickered "Lot of interference, but it seems is coming from the ventilation ducts"

-"Get ready, I don't want any surprises" Wilson told them. "Check those corners"

Breck peered into the vent, it was dark inside. The flashlight beam swept the interior. He saw something dangling from a broken plastic pipe and a few cut down cables spurted yellow-white parks.

-There's something in there." He said.

-"What is it?" Wilson asked, approaching the man, Breck lent Ramirez's shotgun to Mary and entered in the vent, pointing the flashlight to the object.

-"It seems like a piece of cloth… and a patch: 'Flying A'" announced, he saw the big, red letter A with two wings.

-"Flying A? Isn't that cattle company from Rigel?" Mary asked "Ronald Baker used to work for them"

-"I got it" Breck introduced himself completely in the vent, he reached the patch and examined it. It had the name _R. Baker_ stenciled on it. "Yes, it's Baker's"

Something moved in the dark beyond. Mary's tracker beeped again. _Beep, Beep, Beep_. She slung the shotgun on her shoulder and checked the little green screen, it flickered with interference. One dot appeared and disappeared. Mary hit the device and cuursed, the screen stabilized but the contact was gone.

-"Baker, is that you? Ron?" Breck called, but he didn't get a response.

A dark shape moved in the shadows, the green dot on Mary's tracker moved, directly towards the man.

-"Breck? Got it, it's moving towards you."

-"I'm gonna get out, something is in here… I… I saw something." He pointed the shock baton front as he crawled backwards. The flashlight beam illuminated a black shadow. Something big, slowly crawling inside the vent towards him.

-"Breck? Get out of there!" Wilson and Mary shouted.

The man's feet appeared, followed by his waist and torso. Finally Breck was out, Wilson and Mary saw his frightened face, but before they can ask why, they hear the screeching.

-"Run! It's coming! We got to get out of here!" Breck yelled, the creature inside screeched again and soon, the three were running through the corridor. Mary looked back and saw the black monstrosity emerging from the vent, it was 7 feet tall, skeletal appearance, long arms with clawed fused fingers, but it's most prominent feature was the elongated, eyeless head with a mouth full of silvery teeth and a long, segmented tail ending in a sharp barb, similar to the stinger on a scorpion.

-"Wait! The elevator was on the other way!" Mary yelled.

-"The thing was blocking the way, run! Next elevator is at the end of the corridor!" Wilson responded.

They reached the end of the corridor, there was an elevator to level 1, near the casino. Mary pulsed the UP button and a yellow light indicated the elevator was coming down. They heard the beast growling, Wilson pointed the shotgun towards the corridor, with the intention of blowing the monster's head if it gets too close. Breck asked Mary for the shotgun and did the same. Nothing.

-"Where's it?!" Breck asked, moving his head sideways, looking for the creature nowhere to be seen.

-"Dunno. Maybe fled," Wilson told him.

-"Elevator's coming, let's get out of here! C'mon you fucking thing!" Mary pulsed the elevator calling button frantically.

The doors opened with a squeaking sound. Mary entered first, followed by Marshal Wilson and then Breck, who at last turned his back to the corridor. All of the sudden, before the doors closed, a pair of clawed black hands descended from the ceiling and grabbed the terraformer technician from the shoulders.

-"Aaaahgghhhhhh!" the man screamed, the creature screeched in turn.

-"Let him go you –" Marshal Wilson fired the shotgun at the creature dangling from the ceiling. The burst hit the creature on the head, but it didn't caused the slightest damage, his exoskeleton must be very hard, only a few pellets wounded in the soft parts of the mouth and small drops of a yellowish green liquid sprayed the marshal's jacket with a whitish steam hiss.

-"Son of a –" the marshal screamed, dropping the shotgun and struggling to take off the jacket. "Acid blood! Get it off me!"

That only enraged the beast, which let go a furious growl. Mary tried to hold the man by hand but the monster was stronger. Mary and Wilson saw Breck and the creature disappear on the ceiling's opened grate before the elevator's door closed and climbed up to the colony's main level, she fell to the floor crying, the Marshal hold her on his arms.

\- o –

A/N: Hello readers. First of all Sorry for the late update, Holidays were busy and barely had time to write, also someone had suggested me to find a beta-reader but to the moment I haven't anyone for the job, but your suggestions are welcomed. Anyway, on this chapter the alien had begun snatching victims to an improvised nest; it isn't a Queen yet, but soon. I have a few surprises for you.

Coming soon, why Earth lost contact with the colony and the explanation for the barricades and small arms and IEDs inside Operations block.

Post-script: If you hadn't noticed, "Flying A" is an homage to the first AVP comic. And for the question about having different types of aliens, the answer is: With a few pets and cattle among the hosts, cuadrupedal aliens and runners are guaranteed, maybe more… Stay tunned and don't forget to review.


	10. Chapter 10

**CHAPTER 10**

**June 25th, 2179. Operations center, E Block, Hadley's Hope colony, LV-426**

Mary was in shock, she had seen the monster face to face as she tried to save fellow colonist Breckenridge. Everyone else in Operations center had disbelief faces, they heard as Marshal Wilson told them how the beast had snatched Breck and surely Ramírez and Baker, the creature they had been chasing had growth into an eight feet, armored beast with sharp claws and a long segmented tail ending in a sharp stinger.

-"I told you, I shot point blank the bastard and it did nothing." Wilson told Al Simpson, who asked why the marshal hadn't killed the creature. "The burst simply bounced on the creature's carapace, and the few which hurt it spurted acid over me… Auch, be careful Honey."

-"Stay still, Wilson. This will leave a scar" Sandra Archer, the paramedic, applied antiseptic and patched the burnt on the Marshal's cheek.

-"Really? Well, that's another thing for which I will take revenge on that bastard." Wilson said.

-"How? How can we kill that beast, Wilson?" Mary intervened, finally the mild sedative that Dr. Kent injected her began to take effect and the woman stopped shaking. "Shotgun shells didn't do anything, even at point blank. The rest of the weapons are .357 revolvers and hunting rifles, maybe a .30"

-"I have something special, my old M41A, just got a bunch of armor piercing rounds, but that would be enough to kill the motherfucker."

-"Whoa, whoa, just make sure not to fire in any critical system" Lidecker exclaimed. The company employee was a cautious man; the last thing he wanted was a bullet rupturing a gas pipe or one of the colonists shot by lost bullets. "Zeta2 Reticuli still interferes with communications; it'll be two or three hours more 'till we send a message to Earth."

-"Let's try not to cause unnecessary panic, so that the staff stays in block A and D until we manage to kill the creature. For the moment we must assume that it is still in the sub-basement, but we can close the corridors and isolate it from the general population." Simpson proposed, as Administrator he was a reasonable man, to him, first was the colonist's safety.

-"Ok, let's move, people" Wilson herded the personnel. Mary didn't move. "C'mon Mary"

-"I… I'll escort Anne and her kids back to D-Block; they're at the morgue… with Russ." She said, and walked towards the hallway, the Morgue was in front of Medical, Dr. Kent had placed Russ' body there after he had finished the autopsy report.

-"I'll go with you" The Doctor said.

\- o –

Newt sobbed again, she can't still believe her daddy was dead. On her short life she had only one encounter with death, when one of the hamsters she had as a pet died and his father had explained that death was something very natural, something that happened and that there was no need to be sad or afraid. Of course "Mr. Jingles" was only a pet and had died from old age… for a hamster. It didn't die with its chest burst open by a monster. To Newt, that wasn't natural or something not to be frightened.

Anne Jorden didn't want her kids on the morgue, she had told them to go back to the apartment, but the children refused to move from there, so Anne chose to put the body inside one of the cabinets, so that her children would not see the red stain that stretched across the white sheet. Over the place were Russ' chest had been.

-"Do you believe Marshal Wilson will kill that thing, mom?" Newt asked.

-"Yes, Newt. If someone can, it's him" Anne tried her best to comfort her child and hide the horror she felt.

-"He's a marine, Rebecca, of course he can" Timmy exclaimed, but the girl's mood did not improve.

-"'Name's Newt" she said.

The Morgue's door opened with a hiss and Dr. Kent entered, followed by Mary Coles.

-"I'm sorry Anne, but you have to leave." He said, "We need you and your kids get to D-Block, and seal the doors"

-"Why? What happened?" Anne noticed the horror expression and the small red spots on Mary's face.

-"Better not tell you in front of the kids" Mary responded. "C'mon, we're moving non-essential personnel to D-Block"

Anne hurried the kids to leave the morgue, they went down the main corridor to the north access, from there the door opened and they entered the main corridor towards A-Block, where the apartments were. The main corridor was about hundred meters north, passing through B-block, where the offices were and about halfway along the route, it had an intersection to the east, which led to D-block, the recreational area and community center.

Holding her mother's hand, Newt saw other colonists head towards the community center too. Some of them were complaining to Al Simpson. The administrator tried to explain the situation, as they passed the Marshal's office, in B-Block, the discussion went on when Wilson came out carrying his M41A rifle.

-"What's happening, Al?" a worried colonist asked.

-"Just a security measure, the marshal will get the situation under control soon" Al replied, that didn't eased the protests. Wilson ignored them; he headed to the recreational area.

-"We had heard Russ Jorden is dead! Anne? Anne, what happened out there?" the wildcatter woman turned to Anne, having seen her. Anne didn't respond.

-"We'll inform you as soon as you're gathered in the auditory." Brad Lidecker intervened.

-"You and your damn company" another cursed.

The group arrived at the colony's community center. The pre-fabricated module housed the auditorium, which the colonists used as improvised cinema and town meeting place. A low platform stood before hundred chairs, most of the colonists were there already, while a few kids play in a corner.

-"Al right, gather around, please, gather around… We have a situation in hand, as some of you already know, six days ago we received a transmission from the Company were they order us to check an area in the Ilium Range. I've sent the Jorden's because it was near their claim area." Al Simpson announced, everyone turned to the administrator. After a pause, he continued "They'd found something, details from the survey drone and the tractor cameras show a ship of alien design, crashed in the mountains."

The lights in the community center turned off and a large screen displayed the feed from both, the survey drone and the tractor cameras. Through the dust and wind, a strange, horseshoe shaped object appeared. Murmurs filled the room, followed by questions from the colonists.

-"What is that thing? How long it was there? Did the company know it was there? How did we miss it?" some colonists asked at once.

-"For the moment, we don't have the answers." Lidecker intervened "As the orders and specific coordinates came from the company, we assume someone knew. We sent a message, but the answer will take two weeks, as all we know... But that's not all. Please, Genevieve, can you get the children to the next room?"

-"Come on kids, let's go." Genevieve Dione, the self-appointed teacher hurried the kids. Once they were out, Simpson continued.

-"What you're about to see was recorded by the drone, Russ' and Anne's cameras."

The screen showed the tiny craft flying through the curved hallways of the ship and then Russ walking in front of Anne inside the pilot's chamber. There were astonishment exclamations among the audience when the drone descended inside the ship's bowels, but when Russ's camera feed goes off and Anne hauled his unconscious body out of the ship, the colonists remained silent.

-"What was that thing?" A voice finally broke the silence. Dr. Mathew Kent stepped up the platform.

-"At first, we thought it was some kind of parasite… attaching to a host and draining him of nutrients. We couldn't take it away, since the body has an incredible defense mechanism, it has an acid comparable to carborane acid inside, Nurse Watkins resulted in third-degree burns on her hand and lost it, she's in induced comma now." As the Doctor exposed, feed from the Med-Lans cameras appeared on the screen.

-"What happened, then?" One technician from the office staff asked. "Did you manage to kill it?"

"It… it proved to be something else" the doctor's voice was paused. "It turns the thing put something inside Russ, and we… I… didn't realize until it was late."

The audience was quiet. Anne was holding back the horror and tears, for Kent it was harder to report what happened.

-"The creature is some kind of parasitoid organism, it use the human body for…" he searched the words "incubation. The resulting creature burst out of the victim, killing him"

Feed from the Med-Lab cameras shown the gruesome scene, some of the wildcatters let go out horror and disbelief expressions, a woman covered her mouth, her eyes widened as plates.

-"Where's that thing right now?! Are more of those things out there? Are we safe?" the colonist asked, obviously they were frightened, But the worst was yet to come.

-"That thing had growth fast" the Marshal intervened "It took Ramírez and Breckenridge down on the maintenance level. I'll go to kill it right now!" he cocked the pulse rifle and headed for the exit.

-"Meanwhile, we need all non-essential personnel here for protection, mainly kids." Simpson concluded "Anyone how had a gun; we need to constantly watch this block until the emergency is over.

\- o –

The sensation of something wet on his face woke Breck. It was dark but little light filtered through a grate above. His head hurt and he felt eye pain, it was then that he realized that he was upside down, water… or something else dripped onto his chin and slid down his face to his forehead. A thick, black resin kept it glued to the wall of the small maintenance area. When he got used to the low light, he saw with horror that there were three lumps beside him: He recognized Baker's body beside him, still recognizable. It was wrapped in a kind of cocoon of the same material that held it, his body was almost completely turned into something resembling an exaggeratedly large football balloon; beyond that, he saw another of the strange ovoids, opened from the upper part and Baker's dog Rufus, hanging from the ceiling with a spider-like creature like the one he saw on the Med-Lab dead at its feet.

A slight hissing drew his attention to the other side of the cabin. There, crouched and waiting, was the beast that had caught him. A black gray monstrosity with an elongated head without eyes and a mouth full of strangely human teeth, but they glowed with a silver color. The smooth carapace which covered the head wasn't totally opaque; a strangely human-like skull was visible beneath it, watching Breck through the empty sockets.

Suddenly, Rufus start to howl, first in a labored way, then increasing in intensity and finally giving moans of agony as he writhed in the cocoon. Breck saw something pushing under the fur of the dog. Finally, in an explosion of blood and viscera, another of the infernal creatures, emerged from the animal, letting out a shuddering screech.

Breck realized the strange ovoid was what was left of Ramirez, turned into one of the eggs Russ had found inside that derelict ship, and Baker was in the process of becoming one too, one intended for the Terraforming engineer. He started to scream.

-"Heeeeelp! Heeelp meeee, please. I'm heeeere!" he cried over and over again.

The desperate calls for help continued until a second spidery creature attached to his face.

Hours later, while the colonists gathered in D-Block and Wilson was about to go down to kill the creature, a third monster was rising from Breckenridge's chest, and the nest became too small for the creatures, it was time to find a new place.

Using their superior senses, the leading creature detected the distant sound of machinery. It came from a dark tunnel at the end of a corridor. The pressure door was usually closed, but someone had left it open, the creatures entered following the noise. Soon they felt an increase in ambient temperature, a light and warm breeze coming from the tunnel.

It was wide, but the creatures who lived there didn't used often, as the beast detected the fain stench of stagnant air, crates were placed in carts at certain places as well as the occasional cargo vehicle parked inside. Finally they arrived at the end of the tunnel and the noise became stronger.

The place was a maze of pipes and catwalks; two levels beneath, the air was humid and warmth, something on the creatures' liking, they could make a new nest there. The tunnel would serve to bring prey quickly. They found the perfect place in a large room with a grid floor and large pipes running through the ceiling. A huge cylindrical tower in the back rose from floor to ceiling; it was the noise source, the pipes came into the cylinder from above and formed a spiral, coming out beneath the floor grid. The creatures noticed that the top was cold, while the bottom pipe gave off steam. It was the perfect place.

\- o –

Hello readers, I'm back. First of all, sorry for the delay, a lot of things in mind and a lot of work, but finally this is a new chapter. There are two aliens now and you're right. One of them is a Runner! And yes, they had found the primary heat exchanger camera, beneath the Atmosphere processor. This was due to the creature's preferences for heat and humidity, more than strategy, but proved an effective defense. Don't forget to comment and _Adios muchachos_!


End file.
